He said the couple exchanged blows, she fell against a dresser and he tried unsuccessfully to revive her. Then Tarala panicked, Tuite said, and he called a former girlfriend, Debra Amato, for help and the two dumped the body in a Palos Township forest preserve. A mushroom hunter found it two weeks later.

At the time of his arrest, Tarala was free on $1 million bond while appealing his conviction for concealing a 1983 homicide. In that case, his wife`s brother, Thomas Stanley, was convicted of murdering a 15-year-old girl.